SUSE Linux

Understanding SUSE

SUSE Linux is a free and open-source computer operating system developed by SUSE. SUSE is an MNC that an enterprise-grade Open-Source products in the context to Linux technologies. The main branch of SUSE is situated in Germany, and its headquarters is situated in Luxembourg. Also the SUSE offices are worldwide. SUSE Linux has very similarity to Red Hat Linux. SUSE Linux has the Linux kernel and other components in the Linux operating system that are easily purchasable.

SUSE provides various editions of its OS that support different types of working environments. Purchasing a fully-fledged Linux-based platform is advisable if you want to invest time and resources in installing a free and open-source Linux distro. When you purchase a SUSE product, you will be provided with proper documentation and support.

Products of SUSE

SUSE first commercialized the Linux kernel, which was the first company to do so. The SUSE company plays an important role in Linux innovation, emerged as a modest effort 30 years ago and has grown into a global company. SUSE provides approx 20 products in the four categories mentioned below:

Server:

SUSE provides the server products, including the company's flagship OS, SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. It also provides three editions of the IBM platforms, which are

IBM Z
LinuxOne
Power Systems

In addition, SUSE also offers an enterprise server product for the 64-bit Arm architecture.

Environments:

You can find multiple products in this category. You can find here several products such as SLED, SLES and various others.

Management and Extensions:

SUSE Linux provides a number of products related to management and extensions such as suSUSE Manager, SLELP, and much more.

SUSE Rancher:

This category of products focuses on Kubernetes management and includes products such as SUSE Rancher, SUSE Rancher Hosted, Rancher Kubernetes Engine, K3s and Rancher Longhorn.

openSUSE Linux

openSUSE Linux is handled or managed by the community of openSUSE Project and sponsored by SUSE to develop and maintain the components of SUSE Linux. It is similar to the openSUSE of the historic SuSE Linux Professional.

openSUSE Linux provides the validity of the development cycle from 8 months to 18 months from the release date. You can download it for free immediately. According to DistroWatcn, openSUSE was the ninth most popular Linux distro in 2023.

SUSE Linux Enterprise

SUSE develops multiple products for its business purpose. These business products target the corporate sector. This development cycle is a longer process han usual, which guarantees stability at the affordable cost of development support and also provides certification.

In comparison to the openSUSE distribution, the SUSE Linux enterprise does not have more packages. There are major differences related to desktop applications that are much more suited to the user than business. Here are listed some SUSE Linux Enterprise products:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is a server-based operating system mainly used in corporate environments.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time is an extended version of SLES. It supports low-latency operations where the time factor is important.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) is a desktop-based operating system mainly used in corporate sectors.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client (SLETC) is an extended version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop aimed at thin client terminals.

When installed with a kernel, SLES is used as a platform by Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES). As stated on the SUSE Partners website, SUSE Linux Enterprise was included for free in VMware vSphere Licensing until June 25, 2014.

SUSE Studio

It is a product of SUSE, which is a web interface to openSUSE's KIWI and the Open Build Service tools. It enabled users to put together a Linux distro graphically and to generate output consisting of a variety of virtual machine and disk images. In 2017, SUSE Studio merged with the Open Build Service. After that, the project was renamed to SUSE Studio Express.

What is Novell?

In November 2003, Novell declared that SuSE Linux AG can be acquired by us for $210 million, and it was done in January 2004.

To incline the business audiences towards Novell, it moved to do that more effectively. In 2001, SuSE came up with the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and a few months before Novell's purchase, it changed the company name to "SUSE Linux". "SUSE" is now a name, not just an acronym.

About openSUSE Project

In August 2005, Novell released the professional series of the openSUSE Project community. From the beginning, the software was open-source, but openSUSE opened the development process, which helped its users test and develop it. Formerly, all development work had been accomplished by SUSE. SUSE's first version was 10.0, which included a feature called public beta testing.

The 10.0 version of SUSE Linux includes both open-source and proprietary applications. As we can see in the changes, YaST Online Update server access has become free for almost every SUSE Linux user.

In November 2005, Hubert Mantel, the founder of the SUSE resigned from the company. He said that the current policies are not the same as I founded it 13 years earlier. The resignation appeared because of the dispute in implementing Ximian products in the Linux GNOME-based default desktop environment. However, Hubert Mantel re-joined the SUSE only a year later.

History of SUSE

Year	Description
1992	Roland Dyroff, Thomas Fehr, Hubert Mantel and Burchard Steinbild founded SUSE. Introduced the first distribution of SUSE Linux-based OS called Softlanding Linux System (SLS).
1994	The company released S.u.S.E. Linux 1.0, a Slackware-based OS.
1996	Released its S.u.S.E. Linux 4.2 based on Jurix. The first true SUSE distribution.
1997	SUSE entered North America as the leading marketer of Linux distribution.
1999	Partnership with IBM, ORACLE and SAP. Entered into the Asia-Pacific market. Developed YaST (Yet another Setup Tool), an installation and configuration framework.
2000	The first version of SLES, which is an operating system for IBM S/390, was released.
2001	Released SLES for the X86 architecture operating system.
2002	Partnerships with Intel, AMD, Fujitsu, and HP.
2003	SuSE came up with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop for business. Changed its name from SuSE to SUSE.
2004	Novell acquired SUSE and launched openSUSE.
2006	Microsoft and SUSE declared a collusion agreement and unified. Integrated the Xen hypervisor into SLES.
2007	Released SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.
2009	Released SLES 11 with the KVM hypervisor. Introduced SUSE Studio.
2010	Collaborated with VMware. SUSE Linux Enterprise became available on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
2012	SUSE Linux Enterprise Server became available on Windows Azure. SUSECON, an annual user conference in North America, was launched.
2014	Joined the Micro Focus Group. Released SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and SUSE Manager.
2015	Joined Cloud Foundry and introduced SUSE Enterprise Storage based on Ceph.
2016	Acquired an openATTIC storage management platform.
2017	Introduced the SUSE Cloud Application Platform with Cloud Foundry certification. Released its SUSE Containers as a Service Platform.
2018	SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 was released.
2019	Partnership with EQT to become the largest independent, open-source software vendor in the world.
2020	Acquired Rancher Labs for its Kubernetes expertise.
2021	Released SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3.

Versions of SUSE Distributions

Project	Version	Release Year
S.u.S.E. Linux (Slackware-based)	4/94	1994
	7/94
	11/94
	4/95	1995
	8/95
	11/95
S.u.S.E. Linux (jurix-based)	4.3	1996
	4.4
	4.4.1
	5.0	1997
	5.1
	5.2
	5.3	1998
SuSE Linux	6.0	1998
	6.1	1998
	6.2	1999
	6.3
	6.4
	7.0
	7.1	2000
	7.2
	7.3
	8.0	2001
	8.1	2002
	8.2	2003
SUSE Linux Enterprise	9.1	2004
	9.2
	9.3
	10.0	2005
	10.1	2006
	10.2	2007
	10.3	2008
	10.4	2009
	11.0	2011
	11.1	2010
	11.2	2012
	11.3	2013
	11.4	2015
	12.0	2014
	12.1	2015
	12.2	2016
	12.3	2017
	12.4	2018
	12.5	2019
	15.0	2018
	15.1	2019
	15.2	2020
	15.3	2021
	15.4	2022
	15.5	2023

SLES vs SLED

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server	SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
Its primary focus is to provide packages for specific purposes.	It also provides packages that are used for different and specific purposes.
It comes up with the Apache Web Server.	It does not include the Apache Web Server.
It does not have the Xgl/Compix feature.	It includes the Xgl/Compix feature.

In comparison, openSUSE does not create separate distros for servers, desktops, and tablets. In fact, its repositories include the required software and use installation patterns to accomplish this.

Difference Between openSUSE & SUSE Linux Enterprise

openSUSE	SUSE Linux Enterprise
It is a freely available community project.	It is the commercial edition of SUSE.
It releases the versions based on frequent comparisons.	It releases much less frequently, which enables it to provide more effective support for the deployments of the enterprise and production.
It uses the latest version of the open-source projects.	It is verified for a wide variety of enterprise applications and provides numerous special enterprise features.

Conclusion

SUSE Linux is a versatile and reliable open-source operating system that accomplishes enterprise and personal users. It is known for its robust performance, security features, and ease of management; SUSE Linux supports a wide range of applications and workloads. Its community-driven development ensures continuous improvement and innovation. SUSE Linux stands out with its exceptional support and comprehensive ecosystem, making it an excellent choice for those seeking a powerful and scalable Linux distribution for various computing needs.

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